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Mansabá fire, March 2017 Bambadinca, Mansabá

Out · last detection 10 Apr 2017, 02:07 UTC

The fire started on 27 March 2017 in Mansabá, Guinea-Bissau, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,590 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Oio since 2016 (of 58 with a page). The largest in Guinea-Bissau in 2017, of 27.

Burnt area
4,590ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
27 Mar 2017 – 10 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
2
sectors
Started on
27 Mar
2017
Heat detections
152
in a single hotspot: 102 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Mar10 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

27312345678910

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

40°high
41km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,158 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Bambadinca
    4,132 ha reached on 2 Apr
    4.7 %
  2. Mansabá where it started
    489 ha reached on 27 Mar
    0.4 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
27 Mar 40.4 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
28 Mar 39.9 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Mar 38.3 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Mar 37.0 °C 41 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Mar 39.7 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Apr 39.9 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Apr 39.2 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Apr 38.8 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Apr 40.3 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
5 Apr 39.6 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Apr 39.8 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
7 Apr 39.8 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Apr 40.1 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
9 Apr 39.6 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
10 Apr 39.5 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
11 Apr after 38.9 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Apr after 40.2 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Apr after 41.2 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Apr after 40.7 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
15 Apr after 39.9 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Apr after 41.6 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
17 Apr after 42.1 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
18 Apr after 41.4 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Apr after 41.2 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
20 Apr after 40.2 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 20 Mar 2017
After · 17 Apr 2017

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 152Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Guinea-Bissau ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mansabá fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 March 2017 to 10 April 2017 (15 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 April 2017 to 10 April 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,590 hectares (45.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bambadinca (4,132 ha, 4.7 %); Mansabá (489 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.4 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guinea-Bissau (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

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Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.